{"id":6677,"date":"2015-11-09T12:44:31","date_gmt":"2015-11-09T12:44:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=6677"},"modified":"2015-11-09T13:06:21","modified_gmt":"2015-11-09T13:06:21","slug":"dont-hide-behind-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=6677","title":{"rendered":"‘Don’t hide behind EU’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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UK steel workers are today (November 9) travelling to Brussels to urge business secretary Sajid Javid and his European counterparts to take urgent action to stop the dumping of cheap Chinese steel.<\/p>\n

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Belgian and French steel unions will join the steel workers from Unite, Community and the GMB at today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s emergency EU council of ministers.<\/p>\n

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They will be demonstrating outside the Justus Lipius Building where the meeting of ministers is set to take place.<\/p>\n

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Urgent action<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBusiness secretary Sajid Javid needs to secure urgent action from the meeting to tackle the dumping of cheap Chinese steel and high energy costs,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Harish Patel, Unite national officer for steel.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNothing should be off the table, including a refusal to grant China market economy status while it fails to abide by EU rules on fair trade,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

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The meeting comes amid growing pressure on the UK government over its failure to step in to assist the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s crisis hit steel industry.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHiding behind the EU as an excuse to do nothing will not wash with tens of thousands of workers whose livelihoods depend on steelmaking in the UK,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Harish.<\/p>\n

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A survation survey for Unite showed that 68 per cent want the government to intervene to ensure the UK steel industry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s long term survival.<\/p>\n

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On public infrastructure projects, just 13 per cent believed the government should import steel from other countries to seek the lowest price, regardless of origin.<\/p>\n

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Steel policy<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

Among all voters there was overwhelming support for the government to pursue a British steel first policy.<\/p>\n

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Three quarters of all voters and 73 per cent of Conservative voters said the government should do all it can to ensure publically funded contracts support the UK steel industry.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSajid Javid also needs to use the opportunity to learn from his counterparts in countries such as Germany and Italy and follow their lead in developing an industrial strategy with steel at its heart,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Harish.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnything less and the continued failure by ministers to urgently intervene to support UK steel will push the crisis hit industry into meltdown,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UK steel workers are today (November 9) travelling to Brussels to urge business secretary Sajid Javid and his European counterparts to take urgent action to stop the dumping of cheap Chinese steel.   Belgian and French steel unions will join the steel workers from Unite, Community and the GMB at today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s emergency EU council of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[430,269],"wps_subtitle":"Steel workers protest in Brussels ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6677"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6678,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6677\/revisions\/6678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}